UNI\rERSITr  ARCHIVES 


a 


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Mvxycrdty  of  California  •  Berkeley 


THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE 


AN  OFFICIAL  RECORD 


Voi...XriNo.3 


Commencement  Address 

The  Irish  Influence  in  Civilization 

Flush  Times  at  Potosi 

Charles  Franklin  Doe 


Chaucer's  Book  of  the  Duchess 
University  Record 


Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler 

Charles  Mills  Gayley 

Bernard  Moses 

Benjamin  P.  Kurtz 

l.  w.  cushman 

Albert  H.  Allen 


JULY.    1909 


I68UED  QUARTERLY 

Chie  Dollar  a  Year 


THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
BERKELEY 


FLUSH  TIMES  AT  POT 0 SI.  239 

that  these  persons  were  servants  in  dis^ise.  What  was 
[  expected  to  follow  did  follow :  anger  that  would  not  reason, 
.  murder,  and  at  last,  when  it  was  too  late,  a  revelation  of 
the  whole  series  of  events  as  a  scheme  arranged  by  Claudia 
'  to  remove  the  person  whom  she  vainly  fancied  was  the  only 
;  obstacle  to  the  realization  of  her  ambition. 

The  temporary  prominence  attained  by  a  Dona  Clara 
or  a  Claudia  was  due  to  the  large  number  of  homeless  ad- 
venturers in  the  population,  to  the  relatively  small  number 
'  of  European  women,  and  to  the  very  limited  influence  ex- 
ercised by  wives  and  mothers,  either  in  the  home  or  in 
society  in  general.  In  a  community  kept  turbulent  by  the 
passions  of  greed  and  avarice,  and  by  expectations  of  ex- 
traordinary wealth,  homely  pleasures  and  homely  virtues 
appeared  too  tame  and  colorless  to  be  attractive.  The 
women  who  broke  down  the  barriers  that  surrounded  the 
narrow  life  of  the  household,  who  threw  virtue  and  all  the 
forms  of  social  restraint  to  the  winds,  and  who  spent  their 
gains  in  personal  adornment  and  luxurious  living  did  not 
want  for  admirers  and  champions  in  the  brief  periods  of 
their  worldly  glory.  But  a  notable  phase  of  the  society 
supercharged  with  violent  emotions  was  a  series  of  horrible 
crimes,  in  which  women  had  an  active  part.  Jealousy, 
vengeance,  and  the  desire  to  redress  a  wrong  were  effective 
motives  to  acts  in  which  the  hands  of  women  were  often 
smirched  with  blood. 

In  this  society,  agitated  and  torn  by  conflicting  passions, 
there  was  only  a  feeble  undertone  of  unworldliness.  Men 
and  women  suffered  here  the  ordinary  ills  of  human  ex- 
istence, disappointment,  loss  of  property,  treachery  of  pre- 
tended friends;  and  a  few  sought  to  escape  from  these  ills 
by  retiring  behind  the  walls  of  religious  houses.  But  the 
great  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  not  woman-hearted. 
The  civil  wars  that  raged  in  Peru  brought  individual  evils 
as  well  as  public  disaster.  But  in  these  early  decades,  the 
Spanish  colonist  manifested  a  virility  that  commends  him 
to  those  who  admire  the  heroic  qualities  of  men. 


240  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHEONICLE. 


CHARLES  FRANKLIN  DOE. 


Benjamin  P.  Kurtz. 


In  the  year  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Deacon 
John  Doe,  aged  twenty-seven,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  settled 
in  the  western  part  of  the  town  of  Parsonsfield,  Maine. 
Parsonsfield,  in  the  mountainous  Ossipee  region  in  the  south- 
west corner  of  Maine,  is  a  typical  New  England  town  of 
the  good  old  breed.  One  John  Tuck,  not  the  original  Eng- 
lish friar,  but  his  descendant  in  sturdiness  at  least — a  New 
England  farmer  and  a  patriotic  citizen  of  Parsonsfield — 
roundly  expressed  the  fame  of  that  region  in  his  speech 
at  the  celebration  of  the  town's  centennial  in  1885.  ''To 
be  a  Roman  citizen,"  he  said,  ''was  once  accounted  a  high 
honor.  Now  a  nativity  among  the  mountains  of  New  Eng- 
land is  a  better  passport  to  favor  with  the  gathering  mill- 
ions in  the  increasing  States  of  the  West,  than  a  birthplace 
in  any  other  country  on  the  globe.  "^  The  proprietors  of 
land  in  Parsonsfield  are  particularly  proud  of  the  fact  that 
they  can  trace  their  titles  straight  back  to  the  aboriginal 
owners  of  the  soil.  Captain  Lundy  was  the  name  of  the 
Indian  chieftain  who,  in  voluntary  return  for  depredations 
committed  by  his  tribe,  deeded  to  Francis  Small,  November 
28,  1668,  the  land  lying  between  the  Great  and  Little  Os- 
sipee rivers.  Small  was  an  Indian  trader  and  probably 
the  first  white  man  to  enter  the  region.    Later  the  General 


M   History  of  the  First  Century  of  the  Town  of  Parsonsfield, 
Maine.     Portland,  Maine:   1888. 


CHARLES  FBANKLIN  DOE.  241 

Court  of  Massachusetts  confirmed  Small's  title,  and  by- 
intermediate  conveyances  the  tract  passed  from  hand  to 
hand,  under  various  subdivisions,  until  the  proprietors  met, 
in  1785,  at  the  house  of  Thomas  Parsons  and  incorporated 
the  town  of  Parsonsfield. 

In  the  western  and  most  picturesque  part  of  the  town 
is  a  little  New  England  ''mountain."  From  its  summit 
one  may  contemplate  at  leisure  a  panorama  of  woods  and 
fields.  To  the  west  lies  Green  Mountain;  below,  the  plain 
is  colored  with  fertile  farms  and  groves  of  pine,  in  the 
center  of  which  gleams  the  placid  surface  of  Province  Pond. 
In  the  distance  are  more  mountains — the  rugged  crest  of 
Chocorua  and  the  higher  peak  of  Mount  Washington — ^while 
scattered  through  all  the  spring  verdure,  and  diversifying 
it  in  an  enchanting  fashion,  are  innumerable  ponds,  or 
lakes.  New  England  ponds !  One,  at  least,  in  every  town- 
ship! Quiet,  one-hundred  or  two-hundred  acre  sheets  of 
deep,  clear  water,  fringed  with  a  strip  of  white  oak,  birch, 
and  maple, — they  are  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  region  what 
his  burns  and  lochs  are  to  the  Caledonian,  what  his  fjords 
are  to  the  Norwegian. 

On  top  of  the  pygmy  mountain  and  in  full  sight  of 
many  such  ponds,  Deacon  John  Doe  built  his  house.  While 
great  matters  of  taxation  and  war  were  rife  in  Boston, 
the  young  Baptist  deacon,  with  his  wife  and  first  daughter, 
had  traveled  from  Newmarket,  New  Hampshire,  up  the 
Pisacataqua  river,  perhaps,  and  Salmon  Falls,  past  the 
Blue  Mountains  and  Teneriffe,  until  he  had  entered  the 
region  that  a  century  before  had  swarmed  with  the  Ossipee 
Indians.  In  that  same  earlier  century  his  ancestors  had 
been  busy  migrating  to  the  New  World.  Two  brothers, 
Nicholas  and  Sampson  Doe,  had  come  from  England  about 
1650,  and  had  settled  at  Newmarket.  Now  their  grandson, 
the  Baptist  Deacon,  had  moved  his  chattels  further  into  the 
heart  of  the  great,  new  country.  And  this  bit  of  a  moun- 
tain— thereafter  called  Doe  Mountain — ^was  to  become  for 


242  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFOBNIA  CHRONICLE. 

four  generations  the  Doe  homestead;  and  there  he  raised 
seven  more  children,  making  in  all  a  Maine  family  of  eight. 
The  sixth  child,  Bartlett  Doe,  who  was  born  in  1785, 
and  who  afterwards  was  a  prominent  Mason  and  a  success- 
ful farmer,  became  a  colonel  in  the  second  regiment  of 
the  Maine  militia,  and  raised  a  family  of  twelve  children ! 
By  all  accounts  the  Colonel  was  what  used  to  be  called  a 
''very  personable  sort  of  a  man."  He  was,  according  to 
the  rather  quaint  words  of  the  historian  of  Parsonsfield,  ' '  a 
man  of  high  moral  standing,  a  courteous  gentleman  of  the 
old  school,  of  a  large,  generous,  loving  nature,  with  every 
trait  of  genuine,  robust  and  kindly  humanity,  and  fully 
alive  to  every  touch  of  true  manliness.  He  believed  in  the 
development  of  every  part  of  our  nature,  placing  the  foun- 
dation of  excellence  in  deep  religious  principle,  but  not 
overlooking  or  underrating  the  claims  of  social  and  mental 
culture.  When  a  young  man,  he  was  enrolled  in  the  militia, 
where,  displaying  great  military  capacity,  he  soon  rose 
from  the  ranks  to  the  several  grades  of  officers,  and  was 
finally  commissioned  as  Colonel  of  the  Second  Regiment  of 
Maine  Militia.  He  was  at  that  time  of  tall  and  command- 
ing form,  of  fine  proportions,  broad  shoulders  and  full 
chest;  his  features  were  regular  and  handsome,  his  voice 
clear  and  resounding,  and  when  clad  in  his  uniform  and 
mounted  upon  his  caparisoned  steed  made  a  most  distin- 
guished appearance." 

Uprightness,  integrity,  and  natural  ability — stem,  ca- 
pable, New  England  qualities — ^were  the  marks  of  the  Doe 
men.  They  reached  surely  after  the  simple  and  substantial 
rewards  of  industry,  and  held  them  firmly.  The  Colonel's 
well-tilled  acres  and  bursting  granaries  proved  the  sane, 
careful  husbandman's  thought  behind  all  that  bravery  of 
the  resounding  voice  and  caparisoned  steed! 

The  names  of  the  Colonel's  twelve  children  would  be 
recognized  in  any  corner  of  the  United  States  as  the  roster 
of  a  New  England  family :   Martha  and  Mary  were  twins ; 


CHARLES  FBANELIN  DOE.  243 

Captain  Alvah  Doe  seems  to  have  followed  his  father's  mil- 
itary and  Masonic  proclivities ;  Amzi  came  next ;  then  Han- 
nah, Bartlett  junior,  John,  Elizabeth,  Calvin  the  first  (who 
died  an  infant),  another  Calvin  to  take  the  first  one's  place, 
Nancy,  and,  last  of  all,  and  when  the  line  was  beginning 
to  lose  some  of  its  vitality,  Charles  Franklin  Doe,  the  sub- 
ject of  this  biographical  sketch.  Every  two  years  a  child 
had  seen  the  light  for  the  first  time  through  the  shutters 
of  the  old  homestead  on  Doe  Mountain.  That  had  kept  up 
for  twenty-two  years.  Charles  Franklin  closed  the  indus- 
trious line,  and  sealed  it  with  his  own  insufficient  birthright 
of  vitality,  August  13,  1833. 

The  history  of  the  life  of  Charles  Doe  is  the  history  of 
how  the  indomitable  but  quiet  and  careful  will  of  the  Par- 
sonsfield  Does  maintained  itself,  and  wrought  with  almost 
unstinted  success,  in  the  delicate  body  of  the  youngest  of 
twelve  children.  The  immediate  ancestors  of  Charles  F. 
Doe  had  not  partaken  vividly,  picturesquely,  dramatically 
in  the  stirring  events  of  the  early  war-days ;  they  had  been 
farmers,  or  colonels  and  captains  of  militia  whose  military 
operations  were  limited  to  the  hills  and  ponds  of  the  Os- 
sipees.  But  they  had  been  a  part  of  the  great,  silent,  sure- 
getting,  careful-spending.  God-fearing,  New  England  sub- 
stratum of  the  nation.  They  were  not  heroes;  they  were 
taxpayers.  And  that  solid  sureness,  that  unvarying  exact- 
ness of  daily  doing  of  the  daily  task,  that  Puritanical  bed- 
rock of  character — more  indispensable  to  the  nation  than 
its  heroes — was  the  character  the  large  inheritance  of  which 
more  than  made  up  for  the  physical  frailty  of  the  boy 
Charles,  and  finally  guided  him  to  a  mature  and  phenomenal 
financial  success  in  a  strange  land  on  the  other  side  of  the 
continent. 

The  first  period  of  his  life,  up  to  his  migration  to  Cali- 
fornia, opens  to  us  the  spectacle  of  a  persistently  indus- 
trious spirit  constantly  dogged,  constantly  thwarted,  in  its 
various  attempts  by  ill  health.     After  a  common  school 


244  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFOBNIA  CHRONICLE. 

education  at  Parsonsfield  and  some  time  at  the  Seminary 
at  Drakes  Corner,  Effingham,  just  over  the  New  Hamp- 
shire border,  Doe  began  to  make  his  own  way  as  a  school- 
teacher at  Parsonsfield.  He  was  thrown  entirely  upon  his 
own  resources.  Neither  then,  nor  at  any  other  time,  did 
he  receive  aid  from  his  family.  Very  soon  the  confined 
life  of  a  teacher  affected  his  health  for  the  worse.  Noth- 
ing daunted,  he  moved  to  Boston  and  learned  the  carpen- 
ter's  trade.  Characteristically,  the  man  was  snatching  op- 
portunity from  misfortune:  ill  health  necessitated  an  out- 
door occupation;  carpenter  work  was  outdoor  work,  and 
carpenter  work  in  Boston  might  lead  a  young  and  ambi- 
tious man  up  to  contractor's  work,  and,  beyond  that,  to 
wholesale  or  retail  commerce  in  building  materials!  But 
again  ill  health  thwarted  his  plans.  The  air  of  Boston  was 
not  suited  to  his  physical  condition.  Another  change  was 
necessary.  For  a  short  time  he  was  employed  in  the  post- 
office  at  Biddeford,  Maine.  But  only  for  a  short  time. 
Changing  to  Biddeford  was  not  snatching  opportunity 
from  defeat, — was  not  the  way  of  a  Doe.  If  the  change 
must  be  to  a  freer  and  wider  air,  that  freer  and  wider  air 
ought  to  be  found  in  a  land  of  new  opportunity,  in  a 
young  land  growing  to  greatness,  full  of  promise  to  the 
energetic  and  ambitious. 

In  1850,  Bartlett  Doe,  his  elder  brother,  had  gone  to 
California,  and  another  brother,  John,  had  followed  two 
years  later.  There  they  had  established,  under  the  firm 
name  of  ''B.  and  J.  S.  Doe,"  a  sash,  door,  and  blind  busi- 
ness, which  was  to  last  half  a  century.  To  the  delicate 
but  ambitious  younger  brother  the  opportunity  was  obvious : 
California — square  miles,  cubic  miles,  of  fresh  air — a  grow- 
ing country — a  lumber  business!  In  1857  Charles  came 
to  San  Francisco  and  associated  in  business  with  his 
brothers.  Doubtless  his  practical  experience  as  a  carpenter 
stood  him  in  some  stead  in  this  wider  business. 

r 

Later  he  formed  a  partnership  with  James  Knowland 


CHABLES  FRANKLIN  DOE.  245 

for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  the  retail  lumber  business. 
After  a  time  this  partnership  was  dissolved,  and  the  busi- 
ness continued  under  the  name  of  Charles  F.  Doe  and 
Company.  In  these  ventures  the  fortune  of  Charles  Doe 
was  made;  in  these  ventures,  and  in  investments  made 
with  their  gains,  thousands  rolled  up  thousands,  until  the 
million  mark  was  passed  and  repassed  and  passed  again. 

The  sickly  boy  had  spent  his  years  in  the  new  country; 
he  had  nursed  his  health  there,  steadily  and  frugally ;  there, 
when  he  did  business  under  the  sign  of  Charles  F.  Doe  and 
Company,  he  had  achieved  the  vision  of  the  Boston  car- 
penter ;  and,  by  extending  to  that  business  the  same  qualities 
of  foresight,  frugality,  indomitable  perseverance,  and  suc- 
cessful management  in  the  face  of  failure,  which  had 
brought  him  through  the  earlier  years  of  his  life,  he  had 
won  a  financial  success  that  had  put  him,  and  kept  him 
until  his  death  in  1904,  in  the  first  rank  of  San  Francisco 
capitalists.  Even  since  his  death  the  business  he  so  wisely 
and  carefully  built  up  during  his  life  has  continued  its 
success  under  the  management  of  his  nephew,  Frank  P. 
Doe. 

There  was  nothing  spectacular  about  this  success.  There 
was  no  wild  speculation  in  western  bonanzas.  A  sanely, 
conservatively  managed  business  in  a  profitable  commod- 
ity brought  in  sure  returns.  The  returns  were  loaned  out 
at  moderate  interest,  or  invested  in  city  real  estate  that 
invariably  increased  rapidly  in  value.  Real  values 
alone  attracted  Charles  Doe's  attention;  there  was  in  his 
business  no  commercial  thievery  by  means  of  fictitious  and 
inflated  valuations — no  making  of  fortunes  by  mere  desk 
jugglery  of  pen  and  ink.  Money  earned  money  in  a  quiet, 
legitimate  fashion;  there  was  no  buccaneering  under  the 
euphemistic  cover  of  "astute  financial  operations."  And 
this  quiet,  honest  business — so  good  to  reflect  upon,  so« 
heartening  in  the  midst  of  universal  sensationalism  and 
moral    flippancy — was    all    conducted    in    San    Francisco. 


246  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE. 

There  Charles  Doe  earned  his  money  honestly,  and  there 
he  invested  it  wisely, — a  New  Englander  transplanted  to 
San  Francisco  and  not  afraid  or  ashamed  to  live  the  stem, 
simple,  placid  life  of  the  older  and  more  staid  community 
in  the  new  and  gayer  and  less  conscientious  metropolis. 
He  was  an  argonaut  who  forgot  not  the  lessons  of  his  first 
home  in  the  glamour  of  new  opportunities. 

In  California  he  came  to  man's  estate.  No  picture  of 
him  is  left  to  us.  None  is  extant,  save  a  daguerreotype 
taken  just  before  he  started  for  California.  Temperamen- 
tally he  was  subject  to  an  intense  dislike  of  the  camera — 
a  subjection  to  which  not  a  few  modest,  and  perhaps  over- 
serious,  people — not  necessarily  New  Englanders — are  quite 
painfully  bound.  But  the  Doe  men  all  look  alike;  a  de- 
scription of  one  is  a  picture  of  the  clan.  Spare  in  old  age, 
but  not  emaciated ;  some  five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  in  weight ;  a  long  face, 
with  full  beard;  prominent  forehead,  and  firmly  modeled 
nose,  bushy  eyebrows,  with  eyes  rather  contemplative  or 
judicial  than  aggressive,  the  brows  and  lids  rather  long 
and  well  apart — those  were  the  main  points  of  appear- 
ance. In  habits,  Charles  Doe  was  the  personification  of 
regularity.  The  daily  routine  of  his  life  was  seldom  varied : 
stated  hours  for  rising,  for  breakfast  and  his  walk  to  the 
office,  for  attention  to  business,  and  for  the  other  simple 
arrangements  of  each  day^s  life.  He  belonged  to  no  fra- 
ternal orders.  His  evenings  were  uniformly,  year  after 
year,  spent  at  home — after  1888  at  the  home  he  built  for 
himself  on  the  corner  of  California  and  Laguna  streets, 
where  his  niece,  Mrs.  Martha  A.  Swan,  kept  house  for  him. 
He  never  traveled  to  any  extent;  he  was  never  out  of  the 
United  States.  He  had  few  intimates.  Shy,  retiring,  deli- 
cate, he  never  mixed  with  his  fellows.  In  that  respect  he 
was  the  opposite  of  his  elder  brother  Bartlett,  to  whose 
quick,  warm,  positive  nature  the  entire  family,  Charles 
included,  looked  for  sympathy  and  advice.     Especially  in 


CHABLES  FBANKLIN  DOE.  247 

the  presence  of  women,  Charles  Doe  evinced  a  shyness  that 
left  him  singularly  without  feminine  companionship  save 
that  of  the  women  of  his  own  immediate  family.  Books 
were  his  companions.  In  them  he  found  a  quiet,  leisurely, 
and  faithful  substitute  for  the  more  various  and  precarious 
companionship  of  men  and  women.  And,  characteristic- 
ally, even  in  this  friendship  with  books,  a  certain  thorough- 
ness and  frugality  showed  itself;  for  he  was  not  a  light 
reader  of  many  books,  but  a  deep  reader  of  a  few.  And 
the  few  were  books  richly  remunerative  in  knowledge  and 
common  sense.  Natural  science  and  astronomy  were  his 
favorite  subjects;  Darwin,  Huxley,  and  Spencer  the  au- 
thors he  read  most.  In  religion  he  was  a  Universalist, 
looking  out  impartially  and  benevolently  upon  the  variety 
of  religious  sects,  seeing  much  good  in  all,  and  never  allow- 
ing the  narrowness  of  vision  or  smallness  of  nature  often 
evinced  by  this  or  that  sect  to  embitter  his  view  of  human 
character  or  its  religious  ideals.  Under  all  changes  and 
colors  of  creed  he  saw  the  one  common  human  nature; 
and  that  human  nature  was  truly  beloved  by  the  quiet, 
simple  New  Englander.  His  will  is  proof  of  that:  Chris- 
tian and  Jew,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  benefit  alike  by 
the  wise  charities  of  that  noble  document.  The  list  of  his 
legacies  includes,  among  others,  such  societies  as  the  fol- 
lowing: The  San  Francisco  Protestant  Orphan  Asylum 
Society,  the  Pacific  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum  and  Home 
Society,  The  Roman  Catholic  Orphan  Asylum,  The  Hos- 
pital for  Children  and  Training  School  for  Nurses,  The 
Boys  and  Girls  Aid  Society,  and  The  Golden  Gate  Kinder- 
garten Association. 

In  that  list  of  legacies — all  to  societies  dealing  with  the 
care  of  children — ^there  seems  to  be  a  mute  testimony  of 
a  deep  affection  going  out  from  the  heart  of  a  lonely  man 
to  the  children  whom  he  could  never  know  in  the  more 
loving  way  of  a  father.  There  is  much  peace  and  much 
love  behind  the  bare,  terse  law  phrases  in  which  the  gifts 


248  UNIFEESITY  OF  CALIFOBNIA  CHRONICLE. 

are  declared;  just  as  behind  the  stern,  simple  lines  of  the 
donor's  New  England  countenance  there  was  a  deep,  sure 
love  for  the  peaceful  ways  of  children.  His  kindness  and 
generosity  found  expression  during  his  life  in  the  loving 
way  in  which,  year  by  year,  he  entertained  his  relatives 
on  the  happy  feast  days  of  the  calendar.  About  his  table 
on  holidays,  especially  on  Thanksgiving  Day  and  at  Christ- 
mas, simply  and  joyously  he  gathered  his  kin.  At  such 
times  the  self-contained  nature  of  the  man  seemed  to  his 
relatives,  both  old  and  young,  like  the  benediction  of  one 
for  whom  the  cares  of  the  world  had  eventuated  in  a  per- 
fect and  constrained  peace,  in  a  wise,  calm,  masterful 
reconciliation  with  his  lot  in  life. 

But  what  was  to  be  the  final  fruit  of  this  quiet,  strong 
life?  So  much  financial  success  had  come  to  the  man  that 
very  great  power  was  his.  "Was  that  power  to  dwindle  at 
his  death,  accomplishing  no  perpetual  monument  of  its 
own  rise  to  greatness,  and  of  its  own  beneficent  and  wise, 
calm  dealing  with  the  hurly-burly  of  life?  Was  not  the 
dignity  of  some  public  and  perpetual  usefulness  to  be 
the  eventuation  of  so  much  private  success?  Of  these 
things  Charles  Doe  was  not  unmindful.  He  himself  saw 
that  private  success,  when  it  amounts  to  more  than  an 
individual  sufficiency,  involves  a  public  duty.  He  often 
said  that  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  enough  for 
any  one  man,  and  that  all  wealth  in  excess  of  that  amount 
should,  on  the  owner's  death,  revert  to  the  state.  Many 
were  his  quiet  charities  while  alive ;  many,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  his  legacies  to  charitable  institutions.  But  there  yet 
remained  the  desire  to  do  his  own  particular  part,  to  per- 
petuate in  some  fashion  the  quiet,  deep  ways  of  his  own 
manner  of  taking  life,  of  his  own  springs  of  action  and 
ideals.  Many  ideas  suggested  themselves;  he  discussed 
them  with  his  friend  and  counsellor,  Mr.  H.  B.  Phillips. 
A  vast  marble  mausoleum,  to  repose  in  statuesque  useless- 
ness  in  some  hillside  cemetery,  was  out  of  the  question. 


CHABLES  FEANELIN  DOE.  249 

The  quaint  problem  of  ' '  diuturnity "  fascinated  him,  to  be 
sure;  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  appealed  to  his  imagination, 
and,  even  more,  the  endlessness  of  years  of  the  California 
Sequoia — ^what  a  monument  might  a  Sequoia  be,  outlasting 
the  pyramids  by  thousands  of  years!  But  usefulness,  re- 
turns on  the  investment — spiritual,  beneficent  returns — 
were  a  necessity  in  the  eyes  of  Charles  Doe.  Opportunities 
in  and  about  the  Golden  Gate  Park  of  San  Francisco  were 
considered.  The  Carnegie  Libraries  were  passed  in  review. 
Mr.  Doe  thought  that  something  more  centralized  would 
be  of  greater  use.  His  sum  to  give  was  smaller  than  Mr. 
Carnegie's,  and  could  not  readily  admit  of  a  wide  distri- 
bution. 

Libraries,  however,  appealed  to  him;  books  had  al- 
ways been  the  companions  of  his  quiet  spirit.  The  loss 
of  the  great  Alexandrian  Library  seemed  to  him  one  of 
the  irreparable  losses  of  history.  Gradually  the  library 
idea  gained  upon  him.  From  talks  with  Mr.  Phillips  the 
idea  began  to  take  shape.  About  two  years  before  his 
death,  just  after  a  severe  illness,  he  had  a  new  will  drawn 
in  which  he  bequeathed  to  the  regents  of  the  University 
of  California  twenty-four  per  cent,  of  his  property,  *'in 
trust  for  the  following  purposes :  as  much  as  may  be  neces- 
sary thereof  to  be  used  in  the  construction  and  erection 
of  a  library  building  for  its  Academic  Department,  and 
the  surplus  not  used  for  the  construction  and  erection  of 
a  library  building  to  be  permanently  invested  by  said 
Regents,  and  the  income,  revenue,  and  profit  thereof  to  be 
used  for  the  purchase  of  books.*' 

Mr.  Doe  would  have  given  much  more  had  not  the  state 
code  contained  a  provision  limiting  the  percentage  of  for- 
tune a  man  may  bequeath  to  benevolent  institutions. 

Such,  then, — a  University  library  building,  capacious, 
invincible  to  weather  and  time,  removed  from  the  sensa- 
tionalism of  life,  returning  richly  upon  the  investment  in 
dividends  of  character  and  power — a  perpetual  monument 


250  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE. 

to  the  will  and  industry  and  sure  methods  that  had  raised 
a  private  success  to  the  measure  of  a  public  power, 
nobly  discharging  the  public  duty  of  that  success — such, 
.  then,  was  the  eventuation  of  the  life  that  had  begun  quietly 
and  sickly  at  Doe  Mountain,  had  progressed  frugally  and 
gently  through  the  East  to  the  West,  and  had  gone  out 
from  East  and  from  West  and  from  all  else  in  the  same 
uneventful  fashion  it  had  known  all  the  days  of  its  doing 
on  earth.  A  great  Library — ministering  always  to  the 
young  and  the  courageous,  to  the  hopeful  and  the  makers 
of  the  future;  ministering  both  by  its  calm,  gracious, 
eternally  stanch  exterior,  and  also  by  the  rich,  deep  hoards 
of  human  knowledge  and  wisdom  stored  safely  in  its  in- 
terior; ministering  for  sanity,  conservatism,  truth,  rever- 
ence, and  public  and  private  responsibility;  ministering 
out  of  the  growing  West  to  the  reawakening  East — like  a 
modern  Alexandria  performing  to  the  old  civilizations  of 
the  past  the  reverence  of  a  newer  world  power — such  is 
the  culmination  of  Charles  Franklin  Doe's  life.  The  gran- 
ite of  the  New  England  character  and  the  granite  of  Cali- 
fornia mountains  have  found  each  other  in  a  mutual  sym- 
bolism of  that  which  is  honest  and  true  from  the  core  out. 

Of  all  that  large  family  of  brothers  and  sisters — twelve 
of  them — ^to  which  Charles  Doe  belonged,  only  one,  Mrs. 
Nancy  H.  Kezar,  now  remains;  but  California  is  proud 
of  the  name  of  Doe,  and  all  Californians  will  unite  with 
Mrs.  Kezar  in  being  glad  that  the  Doe  name  is  perpetuated 
in  this  generous  fashion. 

The  life  of  many  a  man  is  called  by  his  biographers 
uneventful.  Charles  Doe's  life  was  uneventful.  But,  bet- 
ter understood,  more  deeply  viewed,  Charles  Doe's  life  is 
the  most  eventful  of  all  things — ^the  growth  of  a  great, 
sane  character  day  by  day — more  valuable  to  the  nation 
than  the  drama  of  a  conquering  war-hero — less  obvious, 
more  basal.  The  magnificent  building  at  Berkeley  sym- 
bolizes the  solidity  of  achievement  represented  by   such 


CHARLES  FBANKLIN  DOE.  251 

a  character  and  so  needed  in  the  midst  of  our  changing, 
kaleidoscopic  national  existence. 

This  monument  stands  for  much.  To  the  young  men 
and  women  of  California  it  can  stand  for  nothing  with 
greater  profit  than  for  the  character  of  Charles  Franklin 
Doe,  thus  epitomized,  in  relation  to  the  building,  by  his 
nephew,  Loring  B.  Doe,  in  a  brief  speech  at  the  laying  of 
the  cornerstone  of  the  Library: 

**AnD  I  WANT  TO  SAY  THIS  TO  THE  YOUNG  MEN  WHO  ARE 
GOING  THROUGH  THIS  UNIVERSITY:  YoU  WILL  NEVER  HEAR 
THE  widow's  SIGH  ECHO  THROUGH  THESE  RAFTERS;  NO  OR- 
PHAN'S TEARS  WILL  EVER  MOISTEN  THAT  CORNER-STONE,  NOR 
WILL  THERE  BE  ONE  UNCLEAN  DOLLAR  IMBEDDED  IN  THOSE 
MASSIVE   WALLS:   FOR   ChARLES   F.   DoE   HAD  NOT   ONE   CENT 


252  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE, 


CHAUCER'S  BOOK  OF  THE  DUCHESS. 


L.  W.  CUSHMAN. 


Chaucer's  Book  of  the  Duchess  has,  curiously  enough, 
not  received  at  the  hands  of  the  critics  the  treatment  it 
may  fairly  be  said  to  deserve.  The  most  that  is  usually 
accorded  it  is  some  discussion  of  the  sources  or  of  the  form, 
a  mere  summary  or  a  brief  comment,  almost  always  un- 
favorable. Whatever  their  motives  or  their  point  of  view, 
our  literary  historians  and  critics  certainly  do  not  help 
us  very  materially  towards  an  appreciation  of  this  piece 
of  work.  The  criticisms  of  the  principal  historians.  Ten 
Brink,  Lounsbury,  Courthope  and  Root,  are,  to  say  the 
least,  discouraging  and  deterrent.  The  others  are  either 
flippant  or  superficial.  It  would  seem  that,  as  regards  the 
Book  of  the  Diichess,  there  has  crept  into  Chaucerian  criti- 
cism, all  unconsciously,  a  bias  or  prejudice,  due,  possibly, 
to  the  magnitude  and  excellence  of  Chaucer's  later  work. 
But  it  is  a  mistake  to  regard  any  one  of  Chaucer's  works 
as  negligible  or  as  despicable,  or  to  rest  content  merely 
with  condemnation  or  with  perfunctory  comment, — unless 
the  piece  be,  indeed,  thoroughly  bad.  Far  more  helpful 
would  it  be,  it  seems  to  me,  if  critic  and  student  alike 
would  approach  this  poem,  not  in  the  spirit  of  bias  or  of 
indifference,  but  in  the  spirit  and  with  something  of  the 


*  A  paper  read  by  title  at  the  English  Department  Meeting,  March 
26,  1909. 


CHAUCER'S  BOOK  OF  THE  DUCHESS.  253 

eagerness  of  those  who  first  saw  and  read  it — the  courtiers 
of  Edward  III.  This  is  by  no  means  difficult  or  impossible. 
To  them  it  was  a  new  work  of  art  by  that  "Squire  of  the 
King's  Chamber"  who,  no  doubt,  had  already  won  not  a 
little  reputation  as  a  versifier.  Those  other  great  works  of 
his,  upon  which  we  expend  so  much  enthusiastic  and  pain- 
ful study — ^the  Troiliis  and  Cressida,  the  Parliament  of 
Fowls,  and  the  Canterbury  Tales — were  as  yet  undreamt  of, 
even  by  their  author ;  but  this  poem,  the  Book  of  the  Duch- 
ess— ^was  it  not  then  a  bran-new  poem  by  a  popular  and 
scholarly  courtier,  the  greatest  yet  produced  in  English? 
Was  not  everybody  impatient  to  get  hold  of  it,  as  the  manu- 
script copies  came  fresh  from  the  hands  of  the  scribe,  or 
were  passed  about  from  one  to  another  ?  Was  not  the  sub- 
ject, too,  one  in  which  all  were  deeply  and  mournfully  in- 
terested 1  If  so,  then  it  has  an  interest  and  a  value  for  us, 
however  highly  we  may  value  Chaucer's  other  works. 

At  the  risk  of  tediousness  let  us  gather  the  more  sig- 
nificant statements  of  the  principal  critics.  A  rapid  survey 
of  these  will  at  once  disclose  a  highly  interesting  situation. 
Professor  Ten  Brink  declares  that  the  Book  of  the  Duchess 
abounds  in  learned  digressions,  and  that,  in  the  ending, 
which  was  probably  planned  as  a  climax,  Chaucer  "misses 
his  aim  and  spoils  the  effect  of  his  poem."  M.  Sandras, 
who  long  ago  attempted  to  prove  the  dependence  of  Chau- 
cer on  the  French,  though  he  praises  the  beauty  of  certain 
passages,  emphatically  denies  to  Chaucer  both  originality 
and  art;  in  his  estimation,  the  Book  of  tlve  Duchess  is  the 
"weakest  of  Chaucer's  works."  Professor  Lounsbury 
clearly  refutes  the  contention  of  M.  Sandras  that  Chaucer 
lacks  originality,  but  he  joins  with  him  in  condemning  the 
art  of  the  Book  of  the  Duchess;  the  digressi'ons  are,  he  con- 
siders, "improper  digressions,"  "gross  deviations  from 
propriety  caused  by  the  anxiety  to  display  learning. ' '  Pro- 
fessor Courthope  says  of  it  that  '  *  The  design  *  *  *  is 
barren  of  genuine  invention,     *     *     *     the  action  is  clum- 


254  UNIVEBSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CEBONICLE. 

sily  conducted,"  and  the  effect  of  a  "dramatic  climax"  is 
spoiled.  Mr.  Root  of  Princeton  in  his  recent  book,  The 
Poetry  of  Chaucer y  finds  serious  fault  with  the  ' '  long  drawn 
out  speeches"  and  the  * ' unintermitted  pedantry"  of  this 
poem,  and  declares  that,  ''on  the  whole,  it  furnishes  but 
weary  reading. ' '  Mr.  Ward  quotes  an  unnamed  writer  who 
makes  himself  merry  over  the  poem,  saying  that  Chaucer 
' '  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  writing  such  a  thing. ' '  Professor 
Ker  remarks  incidentally  that  the  Book  of  the  Duchess  is 
*'no  worse  than  some  of  Chaucer's  other  works."  Richard 
Garnett  in  his  Illustrated  Record  merely  says  that  the  poem 
is  an  elegy  and  that  "about  1369  Chaucer  was  under  the 
influence  of  French  poetry  whose  meters  were  octosyl- 
labic." Mr.  Snell  in  his  Age  of  Chaucer  finds  fault  with 
the  *  *  disproportionately  long  preface ' ' ;  but  for  some  unac- 
countable reason  he  devotes  to  the  matter  of  this  preface 
two  full  paragraphs,  to  the  matter  of  the  rest  of  the  poem 
only  one.  Other  critics,  such  as  Minto  and  M.  Jusserand, 
content  themselves  with  pointing  out  a  few  obvious  beauties 
here  and  there.  Mr.  Ward's  account  of  the  poem  in  the 
English  Men  of  Letters,  though  appreciative,  is  very  mea- 
ger; so  also  is  Professor  Morley's  account,  apart  from  the 
excellent  summary  he  gives.  M.  Taine  does  not  mention  the 
poem. 

Whether  the  faults  said  to  be  found  by  the  critics  in  the 
Book  of  the  Duchess,  as  above  pointed  out — the  alleged  di- 
gressions, abrupt  ending,  pedantic  display  of  learning  and 
conventionality — are  really  faults  or  not  can  best  be  de- 
termined by  a  study  of  the  purpose  and  plan  of  the  poem, 
and  the  circumstances  of  its  production.  An  examination, 
somewhat  in  detail,  of  these  alleged  faults,  will,  I  believe, 
reveal  the  fact  that  it  is  not  so  immature  and  artistically 
inferior  as  the  prevailing  criticism  would  lead  one  to  be- 
lieve. A  sympathetic  study  of  the  poem  as  a  whole  will 
certainly  go  far  to  restore  it  to  its  appropriate  place  in  the 
estimation  of  the  readers  and  students  of  Chaucer. 


